An account manager must pay $500,000 for luring 45 clients from his former employer after mobile phones with his communication records were immersed in water or “met with the unhappy fate of being run over by a lawn mower”.

The Federal Court ordered Craig Martin to pay the hefty damages bill to broker AEI Insurance after finding he breached a 12-month contractual restraint when he moved to a rival firm and immediately started soliciting clients.